Ryan Adams Albums From Worst To Best

Ryan Adams And The Cardinals - Cardinology

12. Cardinology (2008): It bears asking: Which would you rather see, Ryan Adams taking a few chances and coming up with severely mixed results, or Ryan Adams playing it safe and delivering something … safe? There's no correct answer to that question, but I feel like Adams's music serves as his own response: Since his insane 2005 (more on that later), Adams has slowed his pace (slightly) and produced music that (mostly) falls squarely into the framework established on his three most revered albums: Heartbreaker, Cold Roses, and Jacksonville City Nights. Cardinology is by no means a bad album, but I'd say it's the closest Ryan Adams has come to a "generic" album. Some of the songs are magical, of course ("Go Easy," "Stop"), others are forgettable ("Fix It"). If I were introducing someone to Ryan Adams's music, and I had to choose between, say, Rock N Roll or Cardinology, I'd give them Cardinology every time, because it more perfectly encapsulates what the man does, but if I'm reaching for one or the other, it's probably Rock N Roll, because that album has a flawed charm its very own, while Cardinology has been done better elsewhere.

This is impossible. Ranking Ryan Adams’s albums is like ranking … I dunno, episodes of Seinfeld or something. They’re all good. They’re all kind of similar, even the weird ones. They’re all loaded with brilliant details and moments you may have missed at the time that jump out at you when you revisit them, years later. They all have highlights and flaws — though the highlight:flaw ratio varies a great deal from one example to the next. And there are so goddamn many of them that they all sort of blend together at some point.

It’s amazing, really, to consider the depth of Adams’s catalog already. Of course prolificacy was always one of his defining qualities, but even if you strip his output to its bare essentials — leaving out the horrible detours into punk and metal (the Finger and Orion, respectively, neither of which demands serious consideration from fans of those genres), leaving out the EPs and the Pax-Am singles, not to mention the hundreds of yet-unreleased songs/albums (we’re still waiting for the apocryphal 20:20 box set which is said to compile much of that material) — you’re still left with a dozen studio albums since the split of Whiskeytown in 2000. Moreover, THREE of those are DOUBLE albums … and the dude “retired” from music in 2009! (Came back strong in 2010, natch.)

Of course anyone can churn out song after song — and Adams sure does that! — but almost nothing in his extensive catalog feels utterly cast off or wasteful (again excepting the Finger and Orion here). That’s not to say it’s all entirely essential, of course, nor that quality control has never been an issue. This list takes under consideration only Adams’s 12 post-Whiskeytown albums (both solo and with the Cardinals), ranking them from worst to best — putting aside the vast alternative-universe discography mentioned above, as well as the three excellent albums from Whiskeytown (whose inclusion would have made this task exponentially more difficult — no small feat, considering it was impossible to begin with). The countdown starts here; make your case for Demolition in the comments.

It’s the only Ryan Adams CD I’ve ever bought, and I tried to get into it, but just couldn’t. Love is Hell, for me.. hands down. I’m not a real fan though, I just pick and choose from his vast works and fawn over their individual brilliance.

Screw Demolition, get the four albums it’s comprised of instead, and other unreleased sessions and albums hopefully come out, like Darkbreaker and Blackhole… I mean the guy has so many awesome b-sides taht a lot of people don’t hear. Ryan should do a real b-side’s compilation like Oasis did with the Masterplan…

For example I’d say the best songs from Cardinology era weren’t even on the record (Heavy Orange & Memory Lane) and two great songs from around when Ashes and Fire came out that were only on 7 inch singles (Empty Room and Star Sign).

I’ll say Jacksonville and Cold Roses are 1A and 1B, and it would be cool to see that documentary about 2005 if it ever comes out, maybe with some live show stuff too

Funny how subjective this whole thing is…I’d share your top 3, but then I’d follow with Demolition and Rock N Roll. No point to make, here, I just love those albums. Especially Demolition. Some days it would be my #2 behind Heartbreaker. It’s been hard to give any of his albums repeated listens since Jacksonville City Nights. There have been some great songs (“Oh My God…”), but I’m getting used to being bummed out by each new record.

I find Easy Tiger and Cardinology to be pretty similar, yet they’re quite far apart on this list. I’d probably knock Easy Tiger down and put Gold higher, but definitely a good list. And Cold Roses probably beats Heartbreaker for me, but I know it’s hard not to put Heartbreaker first.

Love is Hell Part 1&2. That would be first for me. The intensity, the beauty, the songwriting feels raw while the production is so spacey and ethereal. I am British and not so much into country but like Alt-country/indie (Wilco, Bright Eyes, The National etc) I appreciate that most fans grew with his early work Heartbreaker/Gold or Whiskey Town, but i came in half way through, He started delivering the metaphysical angst on ‘Fuck The Universe’ and ‘Love is Hell’. As for disc 1 aping Jeff Buckley, he does it much better than say Muse. When you listen to ‘Shadowlands’ you can picture the landscape of desolation, it is authentic, rather than formulaic on Jacksonville. Love ‘Dear John’ though with Nora Jones that is a prime cut. 29 seems narratively strong and Rock n’Roll is a fascinating detour, the lyrics are trashy but kind of cool.

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